overdue photo update. time works backwards here, you go from bottom to top. yeyeey

Sunset at the end of a long day in Ndola, our motorcycle broke right before this thankfully my co-worker fixed it with copper wire...ahh Zambia.

Some local fisherwomen

The spoils of a long afternoon fishing

Catching up with some local fisherwomen in Ndola

Down by the dam in Ndola

There be crocodiles in these waters

Maize farm outside of Ndola, right now its not maize season thus the reason why things look so barren.

Pineapple farmer explaining to me how he sells these puppies when they are ready. There is a farmer down the road who acts as a middle man with a South African company. This man pays the farmer K5000 for each pineapple (about 1USD).

Wait wait wait....pineapples don't grow on trees...

My village host family, our final dinner together. We had quite the feast, both John and his brother got their wives to prepare supper without telling one another so when it came time to eat they were surprised to find this out. Luckily we combined both meals into one and feasted (yet this was not as easy not well received as it sounds).

John and I being escorted through the field by a local farmer

The soon to be married couple showing us their rape and cabbage farm.

Rape and Cabbage galore. You eat and grow and sell this stuff until you have nothing else to do. There are benefits to this, people will buy it but at the same time because everyone grows this you get a pretty low price for it considering all the work that goes into it. This is why diversification is really important.

Soon to be married. House is already built, they are just waiting to tie the knot in August so they can share it together.

Puppies. What else can I really say.

Ah the wild fields of rape. Picking this is a chore, you tear the leaves off the vine then bunch a handful togther (this is about 15 plants of so of leaves). The amount you see here would take about 6 hours alone and would fetch less than K150000 (30USD).

This building has a story. In the 1950's before Zambia was Zambia it was called Northern Rhoedisia which was under British rule. There was a doctor who owned the farm which this building is apart of, when he retired he was allowed to capture those who aimlessly wander the bush and brought them here. He would feed them and take care of them while at the same time he was extracting their blood to export. This ended quickly when Independance came into play, the Zambian goverment did not renew his buisness permit.

The son of a farmer who takes care of the cattle. These cattle were given to dozens of farmers in South Downs by IFA (I don't know what it stands for). The agreement was that the farmers would rasie the cattle and then sell them to the market after a few years. Once sold they were allowed to keep the profit and the only thing they were required do in return is to pay 10% of the initial value of the baby calves (about K250000, 50$ USD).

Walking through the feilds with John. Showing me the ropes.

When you don't got irrigation equipment such as treddle pumps or rope and washer you gotta use a bucket. Ya, tons of work.

Farmer using a watering cane to feed all the rape. So much rape it is wild.

Walking by a nursary of green peppers.

Nursaries gallor. Everything from green peppers to onions. Diversification baby!

A rural farmer and his family in South Downs.

The finished product of rat. Oh wow tasty it was....
That is Shima on the left, one eats that with every meal here. Your day has not happend if you have not consumed mass amounts of this food.

Oh it's me. On top of the watch tower. How lovely.

View of the main road in South Downs, this is were all the magic happens. This is the site of the currently shut down clinic. It shut down due to the only nurse working being scared off by witch craft. From what I am told it is a serious problem here.

Meeting grounds for many meetings including IDE and ministry of Agriculture ones. The one being held this day was about the new Fertilizer Support Program which allocates subsidized fertilizer to farmers. The agenda for the meeting was the facilitation of a community lead board to oversee the distribution for South Downs.

WINDMILL!!

View of the South Downs/Zambian landspace from atop the watchtower. I should have taken a photo of the tower.

Jesus.

Cleaning the rat after cutting it up.

Rat getting ready for some cutting up.

Skinning the old rat. Who needs fur anyways.

John's son Effrem.

Close up of lunch. I couldn't wait. Yes I could have.

John is such a nice guy, be bought a special lunch for me.

Harvesting rape. This was about 2.5 hours of work with 6 people. We got 89 bundles which is about k120000 ($25 USD).

This is the waterline that runs up to the storage tank at Felix's farm. He uses it to water his garden thanks to gravity.

Diesel pump. It is used to pump surface water up to a storage tank. This storage tank powers a drip irrigation system to save time and effort on the farm.

Zambian floodplain.

Felix's wife (I forget her name). She is a great rolemodel for the community, she knows how to diversify and understand the aspects of risk and planning of new crops for markets. There is a lot to be learned from her.

Oh so much rape. It never ends.

I takes 4 guys to water a banatree.

So these guys sit around all day and watch the pool fill up. When they saw that I had a camera that got really excited, photos like this make me smile.

The person who owns this farm has invested a lot of money into. He has about 4 hectars of banana trees, 1 hectar of oranges plus tons of mangos. He has a pumping system that uses a giant diesel generator to pump water from 3 boreholes into this pool. The water is then used to a drip irrigation system for the bananas.

I never got this mans name but he sure loved being shirtless and green bananas.

Two of the workers at a banada plantation near South Downs. John took me here to see a really different farm that was not a rural one.

This man brought me up a hill to see all the banana trees. Had this strange feeling the whole time I was there that this place did not fit well with everyone else in South Downs. I later learned that the person who owned this place was a wealthy guy in town who hires these men to take care of the place during the week.

Bananas!!!!

Some clouds and baby banana trees on our way to a plantation with John.

Some of John's kids. This was the first time they really came close to me. People in the village, especially children were scared of me for the first few days. By the end most shook my hand...some hesitantly.

John and Ester's family. They took care of me for a week. I learned so much about rural life from them.

Kids! I wish I recalled all their names. There was not much interaction between me and these kids as they did not know english and were hella scared of me. Regardless, they were lovely.

You could see the moon until 10am.

Ngossa stealing my hat.

I use Paul as a way to work out.

I don't know why I put this. But it is for you.

These kids really keep me grounded here. Ngossa is the bomb. She wants to be a nurse.

She has way better hair than me.

My house in Kitwe. The township is called Wuzakeli Meseshi

Ngossa

Estella and Ngossa

Rope and Washer Pump fun time.

Aggie (my boss at IDE) giving some detailed instructions on how to use the pump.

This is a rope and washer pump. It works with well..rope and washers. They run through a tube and capture water between each section of washers and carry it up, once above it throws it out the tube. This pump works really well because it can get water as deep as 50m and it really easy to use.

Instalation of a pump.

Festus explaining the differences in pumps and how each one works.

Tubes going down the borehole!

There is a crowd. Energy is in the air at this irrigation training session.

This lady recived a river pump show she can use it on her farm to demonstrate to others how effective it can be. She was chosen because she has strong leadership skills, she is a single mother and a great farmer.

Treddle pumping action!

Priming the pump

Riding in the back of a truck on the highway with all the irrigation equipment.

Irrigation training and showing off the treddle pump. Can you see all the cabbage. This pump is hooked up to a river but it can also used in a borehole as we will see above.

Oh the cabbage. Everyone grows cabbage here. It is rather delicious when fried in a pan with oil.